MUN Cinema Series

January 11 Catch A Fire(France/UK/South Africa/USA 2006) 101 min.Afrikaans/Zulu/English [IMAGE]
The director who brought us the compelling Rabbit Proof Fence brings yet
another riveting drama to the screen, this one a little less quiet but
just as political. CATCH A FIRE is based on the true harrowing
story of Patrick Chamusso, who survived persecution and torture in the
bloody, violent South Africa of the early '80s. Atypically, Hollywood
left-winger Tim Robbins plays a cop who is determined to hunt Chamusso
down but who also knows that the campaign to stop the
"terrorism" of the African National Congress is futile. This is
the fact-based story of an ordinary man who found himself making history
at a time when things really were as black and white as it gets.
Apparently, Oprah is fixing all that.

January 18 Driving Lessons(UK 2006) 98 min.[IMAGE]
A British coming-of-age movie starring the irrepressible Julie Walters as a
deluded, imperious eccentric, DRIVING LESSONS is a delightful winter
diversion. Of course, she likes to drink but pretends she doesn't, and
ends up getting herself into one farcical situation after another, all the
while insisting on her dignity. All divas require assistants and so it is
that she hires young Ben, played by Harry Potter redhead Rupert Grint. The
young hapless lad then gets caught between two female nightmares, his boss,
the wildly impetuous Evie, and his religious fanatic of a mother (Linney).
Hilarity ensues. You will recognize in DRIVING LESSONS the fine,
oddball funny traces of British farce, from The Fully Monty to
Calendar Girls to Ab Fab and so on. If any other nation
attempted this script it would be just plain stupid, but when Britannia
reads these lines she rules.

January 25 For Your Consideration(USA 2006) 86 min.[IMAGE]
The usual cast of characters from Guests' stable all perform here
with expected professionalism. If you liked Best in Show and A
Mighty Wind, then you'll love this broadly satiric shot at the movie
business. Think The Producers crossed with The Player. When an
awful little picture called "Home for Purim" starts to generate Oscar
buzz, the actors work themselves into a frenzy, dreams of fame and fortune
dancing in their poor, deluded little heads. Catherine O'Hara steals the
whole shebang once again, although Levy's eyebrows are always uplifting.
There's no business like show business, especially when it's all pure
Guest-work.

February 1 Death of a President(UK 2006) 90 min.Rated R. [IMAGE]
You will remember the fuss over this pseudo documentary during the most recent
Toronto International Film Festival, when some American states refused to screen
the film and pious Republicans defamed it without seeing it. Well, as much of a
chill as they tried to throw on this excellent political thriller they couldn't
freeze it out of our series. As critics have pointed out, not only is the film
well made and gripping but it is also important for what it shows about the
current Bush administration, especially its deliberate meddling with the facts.
Based on a much avoided questionwhat would happen if George W were
assassinated?DEATH OF A PRESIDENTimagines the full fall-out from
October 2007 onwards. For starters, Byzantine laws get passed in the name of
Homeland Security and the White House, while crazy Cheney-in-charge starts
sounding really warlike. Come to think about it, the film doesn't really have to
invent history; it captures it. Scarily edifying, D.O.A.P., as its wily
producers tagged it, is not to be missed.

February 8 Cheech(Canada 2006) 104 min.French [IMAGE]
It's a pretty bad day for six losers trying to make something happen in
Montreal. All are connected through a low-end escort agency, but at the heart of
the mystery drama is Patrice Robitaille as Ron, a determined pimp who longs to
be a classy hustler. Stylishly based on François Létourneau's
acclaimed play, CHEECH turns Montreal into a postmodern winter noir world,
imagining Canada, or at least Montreal, into a place of intrigue and menace.
It's not really a happy story but it is a good looking and self consciously
cinematic one, most interesting to watch as a reinvention of genre on familiar
turf. Pass the poutine.

February 15 Manufactured Landscapes(Canada 2006) 80 min.[IMAGE]
You might not think you have heard of photographer Edward Burtynsky but, in
fact, you know him. His massive shots of enormous industrial waste sites,
particularly in China, have challenged our ideas about art and aesthetics, about
what makes a suitable subject for the camera or the gallery wall. Everyone is
talking about the opening scene, a long slow pan of an enormous Chinese factory,
crammed with labourers working at about $3 a day. We don't even have to see what
they're making; odds are we are wearing it. Although the film does not preach in
the heavy handed way An Inconvenient Truth does, the theme of how we are
ruining the earth is familiar. The title of the project and of this film
perfectly captures the oxymoronic condition of twentieth century life, the toxic
effects of cultivating nature for profit at any cost. The paradox of the
experience is that Burtynsky has made ugliness beautiful while cinematographer
Peter Mettler dances the camera through the most embarrassing wastefulness ever
witnessed. Unforgettable.

February 22 Half Nelson(USA 2006) 106 min.Rated R. [IMAGE]
Already nominated for over 30 awards and winning over half of those, HALF NELSON
is arguably the best independent film of the year. The subject might be
familiarthe turbulent reality of the inner-city schoolbut the approach is
fresh and inspiring, remarkably free of sentimentality and maudlin fakery.
Gosling is superb in the role of the teacher who has a big drug and drink
problem along with that heart of gold. One thing leads to another when he is
discovered comatose and wasted by a seen-it-all thirteen year old. The question
becomesjust who is mentoring whom? This movie is an unadulterated
achievement, smartly shot and brilliantly acted, credible in every way. A great
sound track, appropriately dominated by "Broken Social Scene", doesn't
hurt either.

March 1 Volver(Spain 2006) 121 min.Spanish, Rated R. [IMAGE]
What better way to recover from a romance with weird alien-believer Tom Cruz
than to star in an award-winning masterpiece by your favorite director?
Penélope, what took you so long? Never mind, here the Spanish actor redeems her
entire life and career in a terrific role as a beleaguered daughter. You see,
mother, Irene, has died but just won't roll over. Mom suddenly shows up to
help her addled sister with the housework and eventually to assist her daughter
Raimunda (Cruz), whose own daughter is in a bit of a criminal mess. Typical of
his best work, VOLVER is infatuated with women of all shapes, sizes, classes,
and behaviours. Almodóvar follows their passions and respects their intensity
and deep connection to the natural rhythms of life. Always brilliantly mixing
comedy and tragedy, VOLVER is a song to childhood, to village life, to beauty,
and to the women who make all three possible.

March 8 Little Children(USA 2006) 130 min.Rated R. [IMAGE]
If Winslet doesn't get an Oscar nomination for her forceful role in this film
then we'll eat her American Express card. You might think at first that you
are in a suburban idyll of happy youngsters and doting parents but before you
can say primordial behaviour you learn that some mothers aren't in it for
real. Winslet plays the troubled Sarah, detached from the domestic life she
inhabits, emotionally removed from her daughter, and married to the older
Richard who prefers web porn to real love. Eeeew. It is then no surprise that
she falls for someone else, the intensely handsome Brad (Wilson) who might
possibly relieve her restlessness and fill the void. But the human condition
being what it is, and if you know your Madame Bovary, happiness is hard to find.
The film intersects the affair with a creep suburban story and a whole other
plot line. LITTLE CHILDREN lives up well to the expectations everyone had for
Todd Field after the success of his gloomy In the Bedroom. This film tracks
similar material but in much more subtle ways and you won't want to miss it.

March 15 Deliver Us From Evil(USA 2006) 101 min.[IMAGE]
It's a familiar story but it's true and never anything but shocking to hear.
Over about twenty years in California, from the 'seventies on, a kindly
looking, distinguished Catholic priest named Oliver O'Grady molested hundreds of
children who trusted and revered him. The documentary traces the facts and
taunts the imaginationhow did he get away with it for so many years? Further,
what happened to his many victims? What happened to the church that protected
him? And where is Father "Ollie" now? Amazingly, the film takes us directly
into his present day life, in particular to Ireland where the grey haired
O'Grady lives in freedom and apparently has no regrets or remorse about
anything he's ever done. Indeed, he welcomes questions and the camera's
searching, uncomprehending gaze, as children play and chat innocently nearby.
Director Berg is sure to let us know that in many ways nothing has changed about
that side of the Roman Catholic Church and that covering up remains the m.o. of
its many protectors. The film is hard on the head and the soul, and so be
prepared for its unflinching examination of a dirty open secret.

March 22 The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen)(Germany 2006) 137 min.German [IMAGE]
Remember the 2003 hit Goodbye Lenin!, a charming comedy about a son who protects
the feelings of his ailing mother by pretending the Wall is still standing and
the G.D.R. is intact? Well, this feature is about as far from that view of the
past as pizza is to wienerschnitzel. What we have here is a much darker memory
of a cold and sinister period. Paranoia is rampant and with good reason.
Famously, the Stasi were the secret police whom we know best from spy movies.
Here we see them as the very real, malignant arm of the state, terrorizing the
innocent and threatening the entire population just by their very existence. THE
LIVES OF OTHERS follows the manic pursuit of one suspicious playwright by the
diligent Stasi, Captain Wiesler. The playwright has a gorgeous girlfriend in
whom the captain becomes especially interested, and not because he thinks
she's subversive. The plot thickens as emotional and psychological lines are
traversed, reversed, and turned inside out. The performances are totally
stunning and the period construction flawless. No wonder this film won all the
big awards in Berlin last year. It's one of the best on the straße.

March 29 Snow Cake(UK/Canada 2006) 112 min.[IMAGE]
This is the kind of independent, award-winning, much nominated feature that
slips under a marketing rug. This film deserves attention for its quirky
approach to a curious subjectautism. But in case you think SNOW CAKE
might be a Canadian version of Rain Man, rest assured you'll enjoy the
director's light, funny touch and the performers' smart and sensitive
handling of the material. Weaver plays Linda, a grown woman with a poetic,
childlike nature. Without the guarding benefits of a superego, she says
whatever's on her mind, speaking, in a way, for the long buried child in
all of us. Into her life comes Alex (the always compelling Rickman) to
tell her some really bad news. Her reaction, however, surprises him and
sets the stage for what becomes one of the oddest relationships
you'll ever see, and enjoy, on film. Two great actors, assisted by a
strong supporting cast, get to perform their hearts out for each other
and appreciative audiences: it’s a movie made in MUN Cinema Series heaven.

April 5 Days of Glory/Indigènes(France/Morocco/Algeria/Belgium 2006) 123 min.French/Arabic [IMAGE]
A hugely powerful film about a long ignored aspect of WWII, the participation
of North African or "indigenous" soldiers in the French army, this film
rocked Cannes and will rock St. John's. Director Bouchareb shrewdly exploits
the irony of honouring men who were fighting for a country that had
effectively colonized them. It's 1943, and the story focuses on a group of
men who enlist, ending up in Italy and then in France, fighting for their
lives and ostensibly for 'their' nation against the Germans in a small
village. A love story involving one of the soldiers threads through the
narrative, as do the themes of citizenship, loyalty, colonialism, racism,
and nationalisma rich brew of important issues. Fueling the urgent
and often angry drama is the ever-present conflict between the North
African soldiers and their French officers, the enemy within, so to speak.
The intimate characterizations of the key players are as remarkable and
moving as the battle scenes. You will see right away why DAYS OF GLORY
was nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar. In every way, it's a long
overdue tale of two solitudes.